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July 25, 2010

Anonymous The Kokomo Tribune Sun Jul 25, 2010, 12:11 AM EDT

—

Economist Morton Marcus dropped by our offices a few weeks ago. He didn’t have an appointment, but we made time to chat with one of our favorite contributing columnists.

“What do you think of your mayor?” the former speaker with Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business asked.

We said Kokomo is fortunate to have Greg Goodnight overseeing City Hall, that voters chose the right person in the 2007 mayoral election. He’s forward-thinking, we said. He easily was among the first municipal executives to recognize a coming government-funding crisis.

He has reduced the city work force by 12 percent. He opened a health-care clinic for city employees to reduce spiraling medical costs.

He’s the most fiscally conservative office holder in Howard County, we said – and he’s a Democrat. Yet he invests in the city’s infrastructure. “Did you notice the improvements to downtown?” we asked our guest.

Goodnight’s successes impressed Marcus. His column of July 11 began, “What do you do when you have very little discretionary money and enormous challenges? You might follow the example being set by Mayor Greg Goodnight in Kokomo.”

Of course, no mayor can transform the City of Firsts into “The City of Color,” as Marcus observed, without a passion for making our hometown a better place to live. That passion is Goodnight’s greatest strength – and it’s at root of his greatest weakness.

Goodnight is uncompromising as mayor. Like the father in Roald Dahl’s “Matilda,” he’s right, you’re wrong, and that’s it.

And that side of Goodnight’s personality surfaced Tuesday during the meeting of the Citizens Committee for Consolidation. Despite a recommendation to merge city and county emergency dispatch services for $1.4 million annually (a budget the mayor proposed) and using all county E911 fees for its operation (a change Goodnight strongly advocated), the mayor voiced his displeasure with the city’s 70 percent funding obligation.

“We know this is not what you wanted, mayor,” committee chairwoman Isabella Chism said.

“Not even close,” Goodnight replied.

Yet the city will realize a $500,947 yearly savings, if the city and county councils approve the consolidation plan. (We urge both boards to vote on the recommendation immediately. Let’s not put off saving taxpayers money.)

The willingness to compromise is not a weakness. We hope the mayor learns to accept that.

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